Members Bonoman Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 So, does anybody know how to fix a hard-drive that will not turn on? I'm back on my laptop right now, but I need to get that hard-drive working because I've got a ton of stuff on it that I haven't backed up yet (I had a prolific week). Now the bloody thing won't turn on. I'm going to open it up tomorrow and inspect its guts, but I don't really know what I'm doing so any advice would be appreciated... Just to let you know what happened, it was working fine and dandy earlier, then I walked away for an hour and I guess when it was switching to power-save mode something must have happened because when I came back it was making a sound like something inside was spinning, but all the lights on the keyboard were flashing on and off and it would respond to no commands, including CTRL+ALT+DEL. I finally unplugged it because it was just spinning endlessly and not doing anything else, and even force-quitting it wouldn't work when I pushed the power button and held it in, and then when I plugged it back in at first it did the incessant spinning thing again, and the fourth time I tried nothing happened at all. Now it's just dead. Any advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bluescout Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Sounds vaguely like a bad power supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Guttermouth Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Sounds vaguely like a bad power supply. +1 i would definitely try a new power supply or try that drive in another pc before i wrote off all my data Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oddsock Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 So, does anybody know how to fix a hard-drive that will not turn on? I'm back on my laptop right now, but I need to get that hard-drive working because I've got a ton of stuff on it that I haven't backed up yet (I had a prolific week). Now the bloody thing won't turn on. I'm going to open it up tomorrow and inspect its guts, but I don't really know what I'm doing so any advice would be appreciated... I'm guessing by "hard drive" you really mean "computer", since opening up the hard drive would be a pretty crazy thing to do and would screw your data for sure. I agree with the others, the power supply is likely. If it won't turn on at all it has to be something fundamental, either the power supply or the motherboard. I think it would at least beep and spin fans if the cpu had failed. Try unplugging it again though, and leave it for a minute or so before plugging back in for another try. Also, try another surge protector and/or wall jack. If the hard drive failed (and everything else was ok) you would see your POST screen, and maybe a message saying disk failure. So your data is most likely just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t3ch Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 ^, ^^, and ^^^ Correct. They make little $10 laptop HD connectors that turn them into USB drives... You would be able to hook it up to your desktop and recover any data. Even if a hard drive was bad, the computer will post. Did you try turning the computer on with the hard drive removed? If it wont' boot then, my money is on power supply. Unless you completely blew something up on the motherboard (unlikely, but you can inspect it by removing the keyboard), it should be posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members John S. Shinal Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Agree with t3ch that you should get the USB adapter and try to access the data on another PC. It is an unfortunate fact that sometimes as a PC's power supply dies, it also kills other components in a kind of cyber murder-suicide, so your drive MAY in fact also be dead as a result. If it is just intermittent, there is an old (strange) trick that actually works. Place your hard disk in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for an hour. Take it out and connect it to the working PC, and you have a few minutes of working time to get some data off before the drive goes nuts again. You can repeat if need be. If your data is REALLY valuable, contact Ontrack Systems to have professional data recovery done. It will cost between $250-$1500 to have it disassembled in a clean-room lab and the data read off the bare platter, but for tax, legal or similar info it's sometimes worth the costs. Ontrack is probably the best at that kind of work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bonoman Posted October 15, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Thanks guys. Clearly I don't know too much about what I'm talking about because I only meant that I'd be opening up the shell to take a look inside. I'm not going to touch the actual hard-drive or any of the components inside except for the power-source because I'm pretty sure that's what it is. I'll let you guys know how that all works out for me after lunch. Thanks so much for all the help and advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bonoman Posted October 15, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Yeah, it's almost definitely the power-source. I've taken a look inside and everything is plugged into where it should be. I am pretty it is, anyhow. Everything inside looks good, and from the way the whole thing went down yesterday I'm pretty sure that it has got to be the power-source. Anybody know a good and cheap way I can replace this myself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chunky-b Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Anybody know a good and cheap way I can replace this myself? What make and model PC is it? Some can take a generic and cheap off the shelf but most have a proprietary power supply that you must get from manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members John S. Shinal Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Well, a good independent PC shop will generally do that for a "standard" half-hour labor charge, plus the power supply if it's a regular type. If it's not a standard power supply they will generally tell you that right away (they certainly should). I would NOT recommend taking it to be serviced at one of the big retail stores - some of the stories of overcharging customers are pretty horrible. Carry it into a smaller PC shop already opened up, they can tell you if they can replace the power supply or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 If it is just intermittent, there is an old (strange) trick that actually works. Place your hard disk in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for an hour. Take it out and connect it to the working PC, and you have a few minutes of working time to get some data off before the drive goes nuts again. You can repeat if need be. I've done this myself - it works for drives that have a bearing failure type of issue to where they stop spinning. Also putting a fan on the drive to keep it cool can work; but in the OP's case it sounds like a more serious form of failure, likely power supply, perhaps worse, like complete system board failure. Definitely take the drive and hook it into a known good pc would be my advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bluescout Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Honestly, you can probably do it yourself as long as you're careful. There's the large motherboard connector that has a release clip you need to push, and the connectors that go to the hard drive(s) and CD/DVD drive(s) and maybe the floppy disk if you have one. The big deal is that they all only fit where they belong. Then there's 4 screws to take the unit out. When putting it back in, make sure that none of the wires touch a case or processor fan and stop it. If you're adverse to it, most any geeky techie type can get it done. You must know one already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Well, a good independent PC shop will generally do that for a "standard" half-hour labor charge, plus the power supply if it's a regular type. If it's not a standard power supply they will generally tell you that right away (they certainly should). I would NOT recommend taking it to be serviced at one of the big retail stores - some of the stories of overcharging customers are pretty horrible. Carry it into a smaller PC shop already opened up, they can tell you if they can replace the power supply or not. Might want to have the mobo checked before dropping scrilla on a power supply that may not help. Years ago I had a PC die completely in a similar fashion - it was due to a big ole honkin' surge through the phone line into the modem. The KickStart board couldn't even bring up the mobo; it was toast. If you can borrow a known good power supply of sufficient wattage, try that first - don't waste money on a power supply that may not fix the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WynnD Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 ONe thing that occasionally works is to freeze the drive. Take it out, put it in the freezer overnight, remove and install right away. I know it sounds crazy, but some of the things that occur include the heads freezing to a disk. A friend of mine had to do that to recover his data and he is a mainframe JCL programmer. (About 30 years experience in mainframes.) After that, he would just leave his computer running so the drive wouldn't spin down. One more thing to be aware of is that EVERY HARD DRIVE EVENTUALLY FAILS! Don't forget to back up your data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitargod0dmw Posted October 15, 2008 Members Share Posted October 15, 2008 Before you go and replace the PSU, does yours happen to have a fuse? Some do and some don't...but it could be that simple. If it has one, it's usually located in the same area where the actual power cable plugs into it... Or simpler yet, sometimes there is a power switch on the back of the power supply...are you positive its on? You may have turned it off by accident... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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